OK, I know that I've sat on these picture for a while, but a lot has been happening. And now....my spring weekend to Vegas trip.
The trip begins in DC at 4 in the morning. With a blurry car ride to Dulles Airport. We realized on the way we forgot the dvd player. No biggie. I took a few motion sickness pills hoping that they would put me to sleep for the flight. I am unable to sleep on planes unlike my companion. (It's very annoying.) The pills work for 2 hours exactly.
There is a layover in Palm Springs, CA. Most of the airport is outside. Instead of concourses there is grass and ponds between gates. It was sunny. We had lunch at the airport grill. Standard fare. Southwestern salad and a bacon cheeseburger. No pictures necessary - look at any chili's type restaurant. The plane ride to Vegas was short.
We checked into MGM which was very nice. Bon Jovi was playing that weekend. I had no sightings, but thought it was worth a mention. We spent the first day taking a walking trip of the strip. Went to see the fountains at Bellagio and the Pirate Show at Treasure Island. The show is very corny, but you have to go. It's free and it's really impressive to see a full sized ship "sunk" a few feet from where you are standing. Little racy for the number of kids there, but why are kids in Vegas?
My dogs were about done by this time, so we cabbed itto the Rio Casino. I should mention that my other had never been to Vegas so we had to do a buffet. I checked a few mags for 2 for 1 coupons but only found a coupon for a NY Strip cooked to order with the normal buffet price. I love Vegas. You are given all you can eat, but they assume your gonna need more. How can you turn it down? The Rio World Carnival Buffet is a favorite for the Vegas buffet reviewers. It really does have everything and it's high quality stuff with fast turnover. When I went to get my steak I added a few extras to even out the plate: calamari, onion rings, sushi, garlic clams. All very good. I really liked the garlic clams.
The Rio Buffet (They also have a all seafood one) is huge. They have Mexican, Seafood, Raw Bar, Italian, Corn Dogs, Mac and Cheese, Pizza, Roasted Meats sliced to order. A full gelato bar on top of the other desserts. They had one of the best warm bread puddings I have ever had. Bananas Fosters...I need to stop as I haven't eaten yet.
The next day I woke up for an early poker tournament. Cards were not with me. 15th out of 60 and two coffees and kauluas.
We spent the rest of the morning in the MGM pools. Very nice. They have a lazy river and waterfalls. It was fantastic. On the way to the pool I picked up a breakfast sandwich from Tom Colicchio's WichCraft. It was a fried eggs with runny yolk, bacon, spinach and blue cheese. The blue cheese melted wonderfully into the yolk and the overall effect was really good and creamy. The blue cheese was not over powering at all. I should note/apologize that each time we went to the pools I am without camera and missed some great lunch photos.
The MGM hotel has a Lion Habitat. The lions do not live there, but they bring different lions in for a few hours, rotating them throughout the day. We saw them during a feeding. The trainers threw chunks of raw meat against the glass and the lions would walk around with them to eat it up giving a really close up (1 foot) view of some big teeth.
That night was dress up night.
We took off the shorts and flip flops for dinner and a show. I made reservations at Pinot Brasserie at the Venetian. I was really impressed. A little less expensive than some of the celebrity (food tv) chef places (less expensive for the Venetian) and the guy still has 14 or so restaurants around the country. I now want to try them all. Very good. I usually go to Bobby Flay's place, but this was very good and quiet. We started with Oysters.
We ordered the chateubriene (well you spell it) for two. Exquisite. It came with two sauces a understated steak sauce and a bearnaisse. It really didn't need it. Let me create the plate for you. There was a base of small cut up roasted potatoes. They tasted like they were cooking in the steaks juices for a day. On top of that was a cream spinach where I really couldn't detect the cream, but I would have been disappointed if it had come as the thick chopped spinach in heavy sauce. This was perfect for the dish. Then the meat, oh the meat. It was a problem keeping myself to only half the entree. And, my boy was extremely disappointed that I ate half of the meal. He assumed I would eat a small amount and be full leaving him a wealth of steak.
No such luck. We finished with a chocolate Souffle. I think the sauce was a rum sauce.
We went to see Le Reve at the Wynn. Two rows back and on the aisle. It was great. The actors were right next to us. Really. They were frequently standing right next to us. It is a water show where most of the action takes place above the water. They have a movable stage that raises and lowers. One second someone will walk in the middle, the next someone will do twisting flips right to that same spot and slash down in water. They also have comedians who brought us into the show. Guess who got pulled into the spotlight?
We got out late and then decided to walk in the nice night... for a bit. For a bit turned into all the way with a small stop in a casino side foot massage place to make up for that. Heels are not friendly after the first mile.
We were still pretty amped up after everything and before we knew it, it was 2 am. Funny thing about 2AM in Vegas. That's when the specials start. Right outside the MGM hotel windows, you can see that Hooter's Hotel and Casino (I know) has wing specials that start at midnight. Let the good times roll. Things like this always lead to a story. This is how we ended up eating wings and eggs at 3 in the morning at Dan Marino's steakhouse. The wind up is better than the pitch. Marino's is in Hooters Casino and they close down the Hooters restaurant to make the available seating smaller so they can dish out smaller numbers of cheap wings. Kind of a let down, but if you make it over there at 2 you are already tired or drunk enough to wait until 3 for seating to get your eggs and wings. He got Mild, I got 911. The first picture is the restaurant. Don't know the people.
Last day. Another poker tourney. I made it to 7th and got beat out by a larger full house. That's progress. One more day and I would be rich.
Time to hit the pool so no camera, but I reall regret that. See, we got a voucher when we checked in to get comped lunches at any of a few listed restaurants - like Collichio's. We almost used it on that, but we saw that the MGM chinese restaurant was also on the list and it had sushi. We knew where the bargain was. Mongolian Beef and drunken noodles were proceeded with firecracker shrimp. And then the sushi. Red dragon roll, shrimp tempura, crab claw rolls, and possibly a lobster roll. It hurt, but we were not wasteful because it was free. Those plates were clean. And then, our stomaches protruded like beach balls on the lazy river. We did it for bouyancy.
Adventure man wanted to ride the NYNY rollercoaster after that. I took a picture.
In the last night, I took a suggestion from the boards. A little Italian place with a speakeasy theme off the strip on Flamingo's. Short cab ride away from MGM. So worth it. It was fantastic and decently priced as it was not part of a casino.
Capo's has a non descript door that I think is supposed to be locked. I say that because it was open a little and we walked into the place and the hostess was really startled. I think they wanted to do the whole knock on door ask for password thing. She asked if we had reservations and we did not. We were worried, but she sat us right away in the Capone booth. So cool. If you sit in their private boothes there are curtains on them that you can close for a very private evening if you so choose.
It was lit by candles on the tables. The photo looks darker than it was, but they had a pen light attached to each menu for reading and it was needed. Again, the atmosphere made this place. The bar had gangster flicks playing on a panel tv and tunes from the godfather were playing in the air. We were very happy to have our last meal there. Alfredo and Chicken Parm. It was nice. Didn't have time to a dessert before our plane, but I will return to this place. They have pictures with full light on their website.
Oh, and I tried the trick with the motion sickness pills again for sleep on the red eye back. Two hours only, again.
I'll try tylenal pm next time.
